PORK MONTH: Charles City High School pigs are now in ‘grow mode’

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City High School pigs are all “alive and kicking.”

This according to Charles City ag teacher Bret Spurgin.

“All 12 of them are doing well,” Spurgin said. “Right now, they’re just growing. We’re weighing them once a week to track their weights and figure out what their growth is at, and how we need to adjust feed plans.”

The sow, Roxanne, and the 12 piglets came from the Iowa Learning Center at the Iowa State Fair. Iowa Pork Producers sent an email out at the beginning of the summer, to see if any FFA or school ag programs were interested, and Spurgin responded.

As part of an animal science class, for the first 2½ weeks of the school year one section of one of the ag rooms at Charles City High School was a temporary home for Roxanne and the piglets.

“Now the pigs are out at a farm, just outside of town, so we are able to run out there a few times a week,” Spurgin said. “They’re in ‘grow mode’ until February, and that will be the time when we take them to market.”

The more than 20 students in the class are all on a chore schedule, with two people from the class tending to the pigs every morning and two people every evening, heading out to the farm to check on them.

“I think by the time the pigs are 280 pounds, and the class has to clean up after them every day, the students will be ready to get them to market,” Spurgin said.

Roxanne is also doing well, at a different farm, to be bred again in a few weeks. Her next litter is going to a veterinary science class for those students to raise next semester.

“It’s been a great opportunity for these kids to be able to try and do new things,” Spurgin said. “Last week a few of the kids were out and able to castrate and do a few of those other things. They’ve learned about giving shots and feeding.

“Kids are calling the feed mill and finding out what type of ration they need to be on right now. It’s a learning experience that they wouldn’t be able to get otherwise,” he said.

That’s certainly true for Sophia Morton, a senior in the class who grew up in town.

“Just about everything is new to me. It’s been very interesting being able to walk in and see the pigs,” Morton said.

Morton said she had grown up with cats as pets, and her family used to raise chickens at their house, but other than that she has no farm experience.

“Everything with caring for these kinds of animals is very different from caring for a pet,” she said.  “We’re learning about what needs to go into their feed, how to care for them, how to hold them, how to give them shots.”

Junior Jace Landt lives on a farm and has had experience with all kinds of livestock, including goats, cattle and pigs. He said he is one of just three or four of the students in the class who could be classified as “farm kids.”

“A little of it is new to me — feed plans, I’ve never had to do anything with that,” Landt said. “I have a lot of experience in raising them, giving them what they need, shots and that stuff. I’ve been around that every day.”

Landt said that his livestock experience enables him to answer some of the other student’s questions and help them.

“I might not know everything, but I can kind of get the gist of it to people,” he said. “Everybody is learning a lot.”

Landt said that after college, his idea is to have a job and have livestock as a hobby. Morton said that although she has never been involved with agriculture before the class, it’s something that she might someday be interested in, indirectly.

“I really like mathematics and sciences, so this class is a nice break from that for me,” she said. “After college, I’m not sure, but I would honestly like to be able to apply that to agriculture in some way.”